- 44 - When this contention by petitioners first became apparent to the Court, on the morning of the sixth day of trial, the following colloquy occurred: THE COURT: And all this time you have not provided for the Court, and I gather not provided for respondent, a copy of the document that you are now telling us was your tax return for 1987. THE WITNESS [Laney]: I discussed it at audit. I discussed it with appeals. I have contended that we did file on time and I have mentioned the fact that we also asked for an extension and that a second return was filed and petitioners have been consistent in that position, Your Honor. THE COURT: Mr. Laney, I had understood until now that when you said that you contended that your tax return was filed on time you were contending that you had received extensions until May 5, 1989, and so the question is whether or not you had indeed received such an extension. But now, if I understand correctly, you are telling us no, that’s not the deadline that is applicable here and that is not the tax return that is applicable here; the relevant deadline was August 15, 1988, and you satisfied that August 15, 1988, deadline by mailing a tax return on August 15, 1988. THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honor. When the trial began for this day and we were discussing penalties petitioner said that he had a certified mail receipt for the fact that he had filed his return on time and that it was dated August 15, 1988. THE COURT: But the only stipulated document as the tax return was Exhibit 2-B, which clearly showed your signature and Mrs. Laney’s signature of May 1989, which was a flat out contradiction to your position. THE WITNESS: But we still stated at that time that we had filed a return on August 15th. We’ve never varied from that. We also took extensive precautions in case that return was in error to provide us with the ability to file a second return without paying a penalty for having the refund if we did not deserve it.Page: Previous 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 Next
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